Chapter 14

Leanne and another waitress were on sick leave today. Queens Comfort was two employees short, and Piper could already see how it was affecting the restaurant. The two new waitresses they had just hired were running around, taking orders and taking turn to pick up the phone for more orders. Sitting by the counter, waiting for her foods, Piper noted the discontented looks on some of the customers' faces. A few tables were left unattended. The phone kept ringing. Drinks hadn't been served. And there were more customers coming in, waiting by the entrance, while no one was available to seat them.

Piper fought the urge to pick up the phone and receive the orders for them, knowing the menu like the back of her hand. She had memorized the prices listed for all dishes. She had enjoyed the luxuries and adventures Alex provided her, but she had tried to become more economical seeing how easily Alex spent her money. Often times Piper felt that it was as good as throwing money into the gutter. Alex was reckless with almost everything, and always brushed any problems aside with a laugh. Piper thought that she could be the one to start the change. Indirectly she tried to influence Alex's spending on little things like their breakfast and grocery shopping. Alex hadn't caught on, and let Piper do whatever she wanted. Piper felt rather proud that, as she had secretly kept notes on how they had been spending, she was able to save Alex 2,158.79 dollars for last month alone.

"Here's your order, Piper! We're so sorry! It's just been so incredibly busy today!" One of the waitresses came to the counter with the white paper bag in her hands. It had been about fifty minutes wait.

Piper had already paid. She smiled and took the food. "Don't worry about it." She paused for a second, thinking about offering some help, but remembered that Alex had probably gotten up and was waiting for her breakfast.

As soon as Piper left the restaurant, she ran into the person that was entering. She yelped out. "Sorry! I didn't see... Alex? What are you doing here?" Blue eyes immediately brightened. The sight of messy-headed Alex pushing the glasses up her nose, those raised brows as she spoke, easily put a beam on Piper's face.

"What have you been doing, Pipes? It's been almost an hour. I thought something happened."

Alex softly took Piper's arm and guided her away from the entrance. They both began to walk back home.

"They are two workers short, so it's a super busy morning. Aw, baby, you must be starving."

"Yeah, I am. But I was more worried about you. You could have at least called and tell me what's going on." Alex pouted. She put her fists into her jacket's pockets.

Piper turned to watch Alex's frown, and she couldn't help but smile wider. Alex never walked to the restaurant, so it particularly touched Piper. "It's been only an hour… but thanks for coming." She leaned in closer, teasing her lover with a grin.

"C'mere." Alex put an arm around the blonde's slim shoulder, and drew her close.

Piper was holding the takeouts. Alex had a cigarette between her fingers in her free hand. They chuckled with each other before leaning in for a kiss. Piper tasted the tobacco, and Alex tasted the hunger. Together, they blended into the crowd. The day was as normal and blissful as Piper could ever wish for.

The street was dead quiet. The passersby had steered clear from the site. The entire block was sealed off with barricade tapes. A few police cars and several civilian ones were left, flipped or damaged, scattered or pushed aside along the pavement, where Piper and Alex had once walked on.

Queens Comfort stood, broken and covered in dust. The restaurant's huge neon sign hung to the floor, blocking the entrance with the entangled web of wires. Half of the building's roof was gone, and most of the windows were broken, shards of glass littered along the sidewalk.

Piper took a deep breath in at the shocking sight of one of the most revisited places in her memories. It was one of a few places she held dear in her good memories with Alex. Her clenched fists trembled by her sides. Her eyes watered, and warm tears threatened to slide down her cheeks. Her lips parted a little as she sucked in a breath of air, needing it. She had seen some of the damages from the news websites, while she was searching for Alex's whereabouts. Considering that Nicky had been shot, she had suspected that there must have been some incident involving the 'gifted' people. Perhaps a brawl, and it could be on the news. It had deeply shaken her to find what had happened to Queens Comfort only two hours ago. Approximately twenty-seven people were injured. Eight deaths. No names had been given yet. Piper's heart sank while reading the news, but seeing it with her own eyes now just killed her inside.

Piper forced herself to take a step closer to the restaurant. Her steps were shaky, but she did move forwards. She glanced around a bit, trying to avoid looking into the restaurant for the longest she could, fearing what she would find inside.

Gradually, the debris in front of the entrance were lifted. The curtain of dust was pushed aside. Piper stepped into Queens Comfort. Dark and cold. She could feel every touch of dust against her skin. She could feel her own breath weighed in her lungs. She could feel the cracks on the floor as if it were her own skin. She could feel the hole in the roof as if it were a hole in her own heart. She raised a hand, and the flipped, broken tables were mounted into the corners, giving her way to move forwards. Glancing around, she noted how the counter, where she once frequented, had been blasted into pieces. Splinters of woods were scattered everywhere. Her every step cracked with something underneath. As she searched, dread filled her heart. Then, she stopped.

Blood.

The smear of crimson made a scruffy, unflattering map on the floor. Piper gulped as she stared at those hideous stains. It could have been anybody's blood. Anyone at all. She took in a deep breath and walked further into the building, the rubbles pushed from the path like the slow opening of Red Sea. Then she saw more drops of blood. The crimson became a trail that led into the kitchen. She squinted in the dark, following the trace. Someone was bleeding rather heavily. The bloodied footprints looked to be size ten, and Piper's chest tightened. It was about Alex's size after all. Passing through the wreckages, she eventually followed the blood trail out the backdoor of the kitchen and deeper into the alley. Then, the trail stopped. It simply vanished. Frowning, she turned around, trying to look for other clues. Alex couldn't have just disappeared like that. The woman couldn't fly or teleport, and she was wounded on top of everything. At the thought, Piper spun around, again and again, frustrated as she searched for any clues at all. Where did Alex go? How could one just disappear—

Piper froze when she looked up. Heavy bloodstains painted the wall a few feet above her head level. There was also a sizable hole on the wall as though someone had punched through it. Someone or something, big and strong. Most likely, it wasn't caused by an ordinary human.

Piper bit her bottom lip, and walked up to the opposite building, where the broken wall was. The door struggled for a moment before it was unlocked, and opened. She then rushed in, frantic as she looked around the building. Apparently, it was a lobby of an apartment complex. She moved along the narrow corridor that led to the front entrance of the building, but halted when a shadowy figure appeared from the room to the right. The silhouetted figure was tall and thick. His head was only a few inches below the doorframe.

Piper stopped dead in her tracks. Her eyes narrowed, trying to make the contour of his face. But then she realized that his skin looked different. Steel. His whole body was made of steel. He had stopped in the middle of the corridor, staring back at her. His eyes were glossed with metal, but she could still feel his intense gaze upon her. She had been in Litchfield for over a month now, and the sight of a superhuman shouldn't have startled her anymore, but it still did. It fucking did.

Shifting on her feet, Piper eventually straightened up. "Where's Alex?" Her voice was a little shaken, and she hated it. She could feel his grin even though not a single muscle on his face moved.

He tilted his head a little. His stare was cold—curious. "Chapman… You must be Piper Chapman."

At the utter of her name, Piper stiffened. She glowered at him, her heart pounding in anger. Who was this man? Who were those people trying to kill Alex? "Where is Alex? I'm not going to ask again." Her voice came low and dangerous this time, and she meant every word of it.

It took him a moment before he spoke again. "There'd been an attempt to arrest her for her crimes. But she got away. However, I did anticipate that her friends would come find her… I just didn't expect that it would be you."

Piper briefly closed her eyes. She held back the sigh of relief. Alex got away. Alex was safe, wasn't she? "Her… her crimes?" she questioned, frowning as she studied him.

"Mr. Balik is a generous man, but also collects his debts when they're due. Alex Vause must pay."

The boss. They're with Fahri, too. Piper paused as dark thoughts entered her mind. She recalled Nicky's blood smearing the corridor inside the infirmary. She couldn't get the sight of blood on Queens Comfort's kitchen floor out of her head. She could see every detail of how Queens Comfort was ruined in her head. These people would never leave Alex alone until she was dead. Piper had guessed by now that hiding the real 'Piper Chapman' away four years ago wasn't the only crime Alex had done. Alex must have been too deep in her shits to need to escape and put Diane in a safe house. Alex getting away this time just wasn't enough.

Not enough. Far from it.

Without another word, Piper sent the man smashing at the wall, again and again until his body bore a hole through it. She picked him up from the floor and rocketed him through the roof of the five-story building. He exited with a loud crash, rolled in the air and landed on the deck of the adjacent building.

Piper ascended through the new opening of the roof, and steadied herself in the air. She glowered down at him. Even if Alex got away, it still didn't mean that she was safe and still alive. Nicky barely made it back to Litchfield, and was now still going through the operation. Alex could be lying dead anywhere by now. At the thought, rage stormed through Piper's heart, and blue eyes darkened.

He was trying to get up, but his body was then snatched off the ground, lifted into the air, so that his face was leveled with Piper's. He then cried as his steel arms and legs started to turn in unnatural angles. The sounds of metal grating pierced through the cold air.

No, it wasn't enough.

"Please! Stop!" He struggled in the air, helpless against her powers. "Stop!"

"You hurt her," Piper stated. She watched him writhe as if he was tortured by an invisible whip of fire.

The man hollered at the top of his lungs as his right forearm was twisted more and more, blood seeping through the metallic skin.

Out of the blue, a bolt of lightning struck, the sound of thunder blasting from the distance. Piper stopped at once, and looked up. It seemed that the lightning had hit near the pier. Her heart raced at the sign of the lightning striker. Alex was still alive and near.

"The police... they... they must have found her," the man breathed.

Piper turned to him, scowling. She was deciding whether to finish him off to get rid of future threats, but then she needed to get to Alex now. Alex could be in serious trouble, and she didn't want to waste another second being away from the brunette.

The man took a deep breath in before nodding. "Don't go. You don't know. You have no idea what she's done—aaaaaaah!" He cried out as his body suddenly descended, landing hard on the pavement below. Piper had let him free fall, and flew away. If it hadn't been for his steel body, he would have been broken into pieces. Lying on his stomach, he took a few moments to catch his breath, groaning in pain. His arms were badly sore. His legs were trembling with pain. He hadn't underestimated Piper's powers, but her will to kill. She had literally tried to dismember him, and she would most certainly succeed if not for the interruption.

Piper Chapman... Piper...

He looked up at the night sky. They had finally met again.

Wind sweeping her hair back, Piper accelerated her flight towards the pier. When she reached the destination, she swirled high in the air as to avoid being seen by the pedestrians below. Her gaze was searching along the large pier. There had been only one strike of lightning so far, but the pier now appeared empty. Where had Alex gone? Where were the police officers who were after Alex? It was too quiet for Piper's liking.

Carefully, Piper landed behind the nearest building. When she was certain that no one had spotted her, she came out from the hiding place. She scanned the area for any sign of Alex, walking deeper along the pier. Hot, bright light from the streetlights pooled over her. Each step forward—each moment passed by in agony as darkness was all she saw ahead of her. Alex was gone, wasn't she? Her hands began to shake in fears and uncertainties that she had to clench her fists to still them. Then, as if her fears were answered, a blast of lightning hit again. The sound resonated from her left. She could hear men yelling at one another and the hurried footsteps that followed. She flinched as gunshots began to echo through the area. Without another thought, she ran past the buildings, going around towards the scene.

There it was. Piper came up behind two police cars. There were six cops around as far as she could see in the dark. It appeared that the streetlights in this section of the pier had somehow overheated and exploded, leaving everything under the moonlight. Gunshots continued, and Piper looked on. She counted five bodies, scattered on the ground, lying as still as rocks. Surely, they were dead, and it was likely that Alex killed them. Piper froze at the thought, her heart heavy with dread and worries. The mess was bigger than she had anticipated, but all she cared now was to get Alex away from this. Even just for tonight.

Another blue bolt hit at the police car nearest to where Piper was standing, and the cops and Piper were sent off their feet by the impact. Lying on her back, it took Piper a few minutes before she could catch her breath, or felt her skin again. The ringing in her ears eventually subsided. The right side of her face and body were numb.

Fuck...what was that? Slowly, Piper lifted her shoulders up, staring ahead. Her vision was a little blurry. Alex? She then scrambled up to her feet and crawled out from behind the damaged car. She looked around for the lightning striker, and then she spotted Alex kneeling by the edge of the pier, hiding behind one of the civilian cars.

"Alex… Alex! Alex!" Piper shouted, running towards the raven-haired woman.

"Ma'am, no!" Piper heard one of the cops yelling behind her. Shooting had quickly resumed again, but she was already halfway towards Alex, coming between the brunette and the police officers.

"Alex! Alex, it's me!" Piper called out, whilst she kept running.

"Piper?" With some difficulty, Alex slightly leaned forwards to peek beyond the barricade that was the car she was leaning against, squinting in the dark. She had lost her glasses at Queens Comfort, and it had been nothing short of a miracle that she had actually managed to defend herself against Kubra's men and the police officers this far. She didn't expect any helps from Litchfield at all, or if they would know of her whereabouts. Now, Piper's presence both surprised and scared her at the same time. "Piper! No!" Alex shot out from behind the car, reaching for the blonde. She blindly blasted another bolt of lightning at the cops to keep them at bay. She hastily grabbed Piper's arm, but Piper jerked off her grasp, wincing.

"Fuck! Ah, fuck! What the fuck, Alex!?" Piper clutched her arm, bending and struggling in pain.

Only then that Alex noted the blue currents around her fists. She had unintentionally, though fortunately only mildly, electrocuted Piper. The blue light then disappeared. Her control over her powers always went crazy whenever she was exhausted or wounded. "Shit, sorry!" She cursed, but quickly dragged Piper away and shove her behind the car.

Piper was thrown to the ground, but her head shot up as the police officers began firing again. They were relentless, and Piper was reluctant to harm them, unlike Kubra's men. Dammit. She looked over her shoulder, and was startled to see that Alex was still standing, one hand over her ribcage wound. Bullets whizzed past the brunette, much to Piper's horror. "Alex! Get down!" She turned around and pulled Alex down with her. Her grip was strong, and Alex gracelessly fell on top of her. Their faces nearly crashed against each other, their ragged breaths mingled. It alarmed Piper, scaring her at the same time that Alex's weight felt significantly lighter than she had recalled. Perhaps—no, surely, Alex had looked paler and skinnier than Piper had once remembered.

A bullet bounced off the ground near Piper's head, and she snapped out of her thought. She blushed slightly as the piercing green gaze stared down at her. She pushed Alex up a bit, and was puzzled to feel the dampness around Alex's right shoulder. "Al... Al, you're bleeding!" Blood was seeping through Alex's shirt, soaking down Piper's hand that was supporting the woman's weight. Under the moonlight, Alex appeared as white as a sheet. There were nasty cuts on her face and body. Possibly, the wounds were received during her fight with Kubra's men; Piper doubted that the police officers could get near Alex like that. The brunette was visibly shaken, her breathing shallow. It had been more than two hours since the fight started. She had been blasting her powers with her wounded condition that she was most definitely seeing stars now.

All Alex could do at the moment was a slight shake of her head. "I… I'm fine—"

But Piper yelped when Alex's eyes rolled back into her skull, the woman falling on top of her without restraint. "Alex! Alex! Stay with me, Al!" She grunted in annoyance at the ceaseless gunshots. Panic rushed through her when she could hear footsteps coming closer. The cops were closing in on them. Fuck it! She sat up and pulled the limping Alex close, one arm snaking around the woman's waist. She waved her free hand, and the cars, along with the cops, were propelled away like leaves in the fierce wind. She couldn't care less now if she had hurt them. She had her priority.

"Ah!" Piper winced a little as blood dripped down her right cheek. A tear involuntarily rolled down her cheek at the sharp sting. Apparently, she had missed a few bullets, and one of them had cut through the air, slicing her face. She quickly looked down at Alex's unconscious form in her hold. She knew then that not another minute was to be wasted.

Piper pushed herself up to her feet, pulling Alex up against her. She wouldn't be able to hold Alex up to a standing position with her normal strength alone. Scooping Alex up with both arms, 'grateful' was all she felt. It was one of a few times she was thankful for her superpowers. Before the cops could get up to their feet again, Piper conjured up the energy at her feet, the force shooting her upwards. Flying as high as she could, she rocketed across the sea, heading eastwards where Litchfield Island was. Each second was agony as sharp, cold wind broke at her skin, tears pricking at her eyes. But everything was going to be all right now. It had to be.

Piper had no sense of time when she finally spotted the island in the dark. Moonlight reflected upon the green grass, and she landed unceremoniously onto the lawn in front of the infirmary.

Ouch, that hurts.

Piper groaned as she lied on her stomach. Her energy much spent, she nearly fell asleep right there, but the distant yelling pulled her away from slumber. Blue eyes glanced up. She saw Jessica Wedge along with a few other residents running towards her. They must have heard about Nicky and the attack at Queens Comfort. Having seen the damages firsthand, Piper had no doubt that this fight wouldn't stop just between the superheroes. It had now included ordinary people, and the damages were far too great to be ignored.

Her eyes wide, Jessica had stopped next to Alex, shaking her good shoulder. Jessica's mouth was wide open, presumably yelling at someone—something, but Piper couldn't hear her. Her heart was in her throat, and her body went rigid and cold.

Alex… Slowly turning to lie on her side, Piper watched Alex's pale face as the others began to haul her away. The raven-haired woman looked strangely peaceful like a sleeping child. Piper wanted to call out, but she couldn't hear her own voice. She tried opening her mouth again, but nothing came out of it.